Benjamin Millepied collaborating with Mark Bradford at MOCA

Choreographer Benjamin Millepied’s LA Dance Project will make a sneak-peak debut in July with a performance in the galleries of the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Millepied is creating a 30-minute, site-specific duet, “Framework,” to a narrated soundtrack by Los Angeles artist Mark Bradford. The free performances, in conjunction with the MOCA show, “The Painting Factory: Abstraction after Warhol,” are scheduled for July 19, Aug. 2 and 9.

Bradford has two large paintings in the exhibition, “Untitled” (2011) and “Ghost and Stooges” (2011). “Framework” was inspired by Bradford’s works.

Millepied will dance with new LA Dance Project member Amanda Wells, a prominent dancer with Stephen Petronio Company. They will travel throughout the galleries with the audience following along, dancing on Rudolf Stingle’s art work “Untitled,” a white wall-to-wall carpeting.

“The opportunity to collaborate with Benjamin and Mark on this cross-disciplinary performance is very exciting,” said MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch, in a press release about the event. “ ‘Framework’ extends the tradition of dance performance in art galleries and opens the boundaries between dance and painting.”

Launched with funding from the Los Angeles Music Center, LA Dance Project is an art collective featuring Millepied, composer Nico Muhly and producer Charles Fabius. When he announced the project last November, Millepied said that talks were already underway with MOCA for a site-specific work. LA Dance Project’s official premiere will be at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Sept. 22 and 23, kicking off the 2012-13 Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center season.

Site-specific performance, which had brought dance events into unexpected places outside of traditional theater settings, has been growing again in popularity after several decades’ of decline. The recently completed Whitney Biennial included dance works by New York-based choreographer Sarah Michelson, who received the biennial’s top prize.

RELATED:

Dance review: Ballet Geneve debuts Benjamin Millepied works

Benjamin Millepied discloses details about his L.A. Dance Project

Alvin Ailey, Joffrey and ABT part of Music Center’s 2012-13 season